Bus contractor charged with hiding CPS payments from IRS

CHICAGO (AP) - The owner of a bus company that formally held a Chicago Public School contract has been charged with cheating on her taxes by hiding income from the Internal Revenue Service.

The federal indictment handed up Thursday accuses 71-year-old Jewel Lockhart of lying on her taxes by "substantially" understating her total income.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://bit.ly/2cs3MkW) federal prosecutors accuse Lockhart of using the unreported income to renovate a home and illegally deducting the funds in U.S. tax filings.

The Sun-Times reports CPS paid Jewel's Bus Company more than $75 million in the 11 years before the school district ended its contract with the company in July 2014.

A woman who answered the telephone at Jewel's offices said Lockhart was not in.

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Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/